Spread the retroness!

As Harry Trenner told the story, he and his wife Florence were just sitting around the kitchen table after dinner when they hit upon the idea. Harry took it to Weintrob Advertising, where he worked in New York. They showed it to Maidenform and the “I dreamed…” advertising campaign was born. It would run from World War II thru to the early 1960s, featuring images of women engaged in fantasies—some of them frivolous, some of them less so—of all the...

I’ll never forget that summer day in 1976 when I walked into my boyfriend’s pad and saw the poster of a blond in a red bathing suit pinned up on the wood paneling. “Really?” I asked. “Are you kidding me?” He grinned at me rather sheepishly and replied, “She’s really hot.” “Oh brother.” Rolling my eyes, I continued “I thought you were more mature than that!” And besides, for an intellectual gal who immersed herself in the satires of Kurt...

Spend anytime on the internet and you will find lots of vintage advertising with ironic witticism tagged on the picture as the blogger marvels at the sexism of vintage advertising. Perhaps it’s Mad Men that has led us to devour anything that seems vaguely retro but for some reason ads from the midcentury continue to be a source of amusement for those who think that they are oh so enlightened. Those reading the vintage commercials no doubt have a right...

Before we get started, I need to point this out to you. Bond, for me, is Dr. No-Die Another Day. Daniel Craig does not exist. We won’t get into the debates here, because I’m trying to focus on the good, not the bad. So I won’t be mentioning how Pee Wee Herman would make a better Bond, or how they ruined one of my favorite franchises. Just know this as you read on. License to Kill came out the year...

There is something about a sports car that just reeks of sex. Let’s face it, even if we see a balding middle aged man cruising the highway we automatically know several things about him. Firstly he’s got money, secondly he probably gets a lot of action and thirdly – there is a chance he could be a complete tosser. Now I don’t automatically assume the negative connotations of a man driving a sports car. I figure he’s probably a guy...

A publishing house typing pool is the seething heart of the aspirations of a cadre of working girls, marking time until they marry Mr. Right and settle down. Caroline Bender (Lange) battles her career aspirations and fear that she will morph into scary book editor Joan Crawford. It’s the original Sex in the City. Rona Jaffe’s novel, The Best of Everything, is about four girls (and their friends). The author’s stand-in is the ambitious Caroline, who is pining for her overseas fiancé....

Gypsy Rose Lee. Tempest Storm. Lily St. Cyr. If there’s one word associated with these famous women, it’s “burlesque.” In the modern sense of the word, burlesque was a popular form of theatrical variety show featuring risqué comedy, parody, and pastiche. When it was exported from Victorian England to the United States in the 1840s, American elements were added: minstrel show performances, stage magic, contemporary athletics, and, most importantly, exotic dancing. One hundred years later, all pretenses to high-brow art...

Weekly Podcast

The Cocktail Nation #350

Time for another laugh again with our monthly classic comedy segment back on the show. This week the comedy of Pat Cooper on the radio. News on a popular TV show being sued over musical rights, and no, Robin Thicke has nothing to do with it. And what do you think about reincarnation, a story that might surprise you.

/ Mar 29th 2015

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Ultra Swank

Ultra Swank is a magazine styled blog that takes you back in time into the kitsch, chic, swank and camp living of the 1940s to the 1970s. We mostly focus on the design, style, and fashion of the happy-go-lucky and space-age-living mentality of that era – but also on the music and movies that takes you back to happier times. Ultra Swank is written by a dedicated team of time travelers from around the globe.

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